Cornerstone Magazine: Fall 2014 Volume III Issue II | Page 8

Untitled
Emily Möenning ’17

Why I Love Observing the Playground
CLARE KIM

Okay, I admit the title sounds creepy without context
so let me elaborate. First, there are the kids. Most of
the ones crawling around are three to six years old, and
most of them are utterly flawed. One of them bellows,
“Mystic ranger of thunder!” and swings his clenched
fists like Wolverine. One barefoot toddler holds out her
pudgy arms and hollers for “Mommy” because it hurts
to walk among the scattered seeds on the concrete.
Second, there are the parents. Some of them are friends
and chatter about karate classes: “He’s already double
yellow belt!” whatever that means. They act as secondary
commanders-in-chief for each other when counting
down to five isn’t effective. Some parents don’t let their
children attempt anything remotely unsafe, and others
watch as their sons and daughters push their limits.
I have a particular soft spot for father-daughter relationships,
probably because it gives me the best insights into how God
the Father feels about me. It’s sobering to see how obtuse
we can be compared to an omnipotent and omniscient God
(I just saw a little boy take his ball to a trash can to check
if it was a hoop). It puts my questions and complaints into
perspective; maybe I’m making irrational demands and I’m
simply unaware of their irrationality. We ask trivial questions
like, “Would you rather use Tabasco sauce as eye drops or
live without Internet for a month?” but, more seriously, “Why
does my family have to be broken?”, “Will I ever find a job/
spouse/happiness?”, and “How do we deal with pain and
loss?” Perhaps all of my questions are trivial to God because
he knows everything. He could easily disregard our unbelief,
but he doesn’t treat us that way. God always reaches out
to us with sincere compassion because he wants us to
overcome our skepticism, trust in who he says he is.
I’m not a parent yet, but I am a pet owner—not the
same, but it’s the closest I’ve got. All I want for my dog
is for him to be happy, snacking on biscuits and getting
belly rubs, because that’s the best I can wish for him.
Children are (slightly) more capable, and parents have
varying aspirations for their children: to achieve greatness
through a robust career, to make a lot of mone 䰁Ѽ